The invention concerns a swinging and sliding door for a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, with a door panel, with at least one pivoting arm secured to the wall of the vehicle, with a carriage articulated to the end of the arm and sliding back and forth on a carrier connected to the door panel, and with a drive mechanism secured to the wall of the vehicle and having one wheel that drives a flexible linear transmission structure guided by rollers and attached to the door panel to generate the sliding motion and another wheel that generates the swinging motion.
Swinging and sliding doors for motor vehicles are known that have a door panel and at least one pivoting arm secured to the wall of the vehicle with a carriage articulated to the end of the arm and sliding back and forth on a carrier connected to the door panel. Doors of this type are opened and closed manually and incorporate guide mechanisms that ensure that the panel will start to open by pivoting out of the doorway, after which it can be slid all the way open.
Combining such doors with a drive mechanism secured to the wall of the vehicle to open the door automatically is also known. Such drive mechanisms generally employ a wheel to drive a flexible linear-transmission element, a steel cable for example, guided by rollers and attached to the door panel to generate the sliding motion. The swinging motion is then induced by appropriate guide structures or generated by a second wheel connected to the arm. The two different motions are obtained with different motors in the known doors, which makes them complicated and expensive and takes up space.